Say there's a company that's employing a team of experts to harness weather data, allowing you to plug in your fields and crops and planting conditions. The company isn't trying to sell you insurance, seed or equipment. You pay a subscription and your farm data doesn't get sold down the line.

While a decline of nearly one-third is steep, the drop in U.S. farm equipment exports was not completely unexpected, AEM said. In 2014, a record harvest led to lower commodity prices and falling farm incomes, leading to a deterioration in farm economics worldwide.

Two former agriculture secretaries, a number of state agriculture officials and representatives of various state farm bureaus are among the 95 people making the trip, which was organized by the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba. That group was formed after the Dec. 17 announcement the United States and Communist-run Cuba would restore diplomatic relations.

The Senate bill prohibits the spreading of manure on northwestern Ohio fields that are frozen or saturated with water, or if the weather forecast says the chance of 1 inch of rain over the next 12 hours is greater than 50 percent. Some argue that the forecast protection covers only manure, not fertilizer as was originally proposed.